Does Allah 'Mis-guide?'
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DOES ALLAH ?MIS-GUIDE??
A number of Muslims claim (I have heard this particularly during Friday sermons) that whoever Allah guides, nobody can misguide, and that ?whoever Allah misguides, nobody can guide?. Can this be true? Would Allah choose to misguide some people?
(3957-59) When it is said that Allah guides who He wills, this is done by having the message delivered (i.e. the Qur?an). Those who are misguided are those who deny the truth (and we know from other aayah that those who deny the truth have their hearts locked).
(3923) Allah guides those who want to be guided
(144) Allah let?s go astray he who wills to go astray, and guides he who turns to him. See also (1327). See ?in-depth? study of 144 and 1327 below.
(226-27) Those misguided are only those who are ?faasiq? (i.e. transgress the set boundaries). i.e. Allah has set the boundaries/rules/bond/covenant. Those who break the bond/covenant go astray (man?s own free will and choice)
(615) Allah does not guide those who are ?faasiq? (transgress).
(1713) Our destiny, i.e. the results determined by our conscious choices, is set, and those choices will be clear to us on the Day of Judgement.
(1829) The free will of man to accept or reject the truth , as the truth has been delivered ? through the Qur?an
(1794) Nothing stops us from believing except our own objections
(1010 The truth has been revealed to mankind (through the Qur?an). Whoever chooses to follow the right path, follows for his own good. Whoever chooses to go astray, goes astray for their own hurt. See also (3941)
(4146) Whoever does good deeds does for his own good, and whoever does evil does so to his own hurt. Allah never does injustice to His creatures ? see also (3941)
(3923) Allah guides those who wants to be guided. Whoever Allah ?lets? go astray can never find a guide ? see also (7186)
(1693) If Allah willed, he could have not given us free will (which results in us not being a single community). But he gave this to us and lets go astray those who decides to go astray, and guides those who want to be guided.
(3957-59) On the Day of Judgement people will claim that if Allah had guided them they would have become ?muttaqee?, and they would want a second chance. However, Allah?s message (the Qur?an) was given to them, but they rejected the messages and were filled with false pride (that they were good people).
(908-10) Allah has shown us the two ways (good and evil), and given us the faculties/tools with which to recognise good and evil (i.e.now it is our free will). See also (1829)
(2669) Allah guides those who strive hard in Allah?s cause
(4213) Allah guides those who turn to him (Munib)
In-depth study of (144) and (1327)
These aayah have two main parts. The common translation is as follows
(1) Allah misguides who He wills
(2) Whoever turns to Allah, Allah guides
This cannot be the correct translation since the first part alludes to Allah?s choice, whereas the second point refers to our individual choices. What if someone chooses to turn to Allah but Allah wills to be misguided? What would happen then? Therefore, this translation is illogical and incorrect.The correct translation is
(1) Allah lets go astray (through His pre-determined, established laws of nature), those who choose to
(2) Whoever chooses to turn to Allah, Allah guides to the right pathThis is consistent with (226-27) above, where it is clear becoming misguided is a result of man?s own choices rather than pre-determination by Allah.
The two key words are
- yudillu
- yuhdu
Dulla = to be diverted from the right path (intentionally or unintentionally); to waste, to make unsuccessful, to divert to the wrong path
See (215) ? choosing the wrong path in exchange for guidance (i.e. choice again)
(937) Lost/astray(16-7) Praying to Allah to guide us on the straight path, the way of those who have Allah?s blessings, not of those condemned by Allah, or those astray
As we know, Allah guides those who choose to be guided, by turning to Allah and striving hard in Allah?s cause
(717 He who Allah guides (through established laws, as described in the Qur?an), he alone is truly guided. Those who He lets go astray this His established laws, they are the losers
Question Why do we pray to Allah to guide us when it is based on our free will?
Answer (i) to create our own spirit to make the correct choices
(ii) to create the mood, spirit, determination, inspirationIt is with this that we truly understand the depth of Allah?s guidance, as revealed in the Qur?an,
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DOES ALLAH ?MIS-GUIDE??
Peace Munibali,
In all charity I must tell you that your prooftexting is filled with eisegesis and gratuitous assumptions. The fact that man wills and chooses, in no way implies that his will and choice are free of God's will and choices. At any rate, the entire argument is in error, since the verbal forms used in the original language are causative, thus negating the impotent passivity of your translation. In point of fact, long before you and others attempted this mistranslation, people like Muhammad Asad did the same (following the footsteps of Zamakhshari). However, if you carefully read Asad's translation, and compare it to the Arabic text, you will notice that whenever anyone, other than God, is doing the act of "yudillu" he always renders it in its causative sense. With the result that practically everybody can misguide, except for God, just one of his numerous impieties. Moreover, when he translates all other phrases that are similar, for instance those which say "He provides sustenance for whomever He wills", he does not render it as "He provides sustenance for whomever wills"; ask yourself why is that?? therefore, his entire argument is nothing more than the fallacy of special pleading. The idea that man's will is free of God's will is a serious impiety that should be repented of; and it makes praying for guidance nothing more than vain, false humility.
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Salaam
Many thanks for your response. Could I just be clear on one thing please? Are you saying that your understanding is that if someone is misguided, Allah's will is involved?Reason I ask is that this is an important point. I find that in some/many of our communities, where 'wrong' happens people say "It was Allah's will, that is why it happened". I feel it leads to a passive mindset and at an extreme level, one might say we are blaming Allah for the ills of this world. Whereas as per the quranic aayah I looked at and quoted above, there is a clear message of personal choice and free will given to mankind, supported by the need for perseverance, and indeed this is what makes man different and superior from other living beings.
Where Allah's will is involved, my understanding is that this is in the form of the perfected laws of nature He has created, including the laws of 'cause and effect'. Every action we take has a result, and the result is programmed through the laws that Allah willed.
Grateful for clarity as to whether your suggestion is that Allah's will is involved in misguiding - other than the laws of nature he has created. Would Allah 'will' some people to be misguided? What judgement will they receive on the Last Day?
JZK
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I can only speak from my own experiences. I was often on the wrong path, not knowing whether God exists, after I came back to Catholicism, I was completely astray. However, this was done unconsciously, not deliberately. I.e. I never denied God or willfully made fun of people who believe. I just could not accept more of these Christian Associations, and turned away. This is an important point. The actual act of will to reject God, or to make fun of him.
I wandered ever further. But God saved me, not once but several times-before death.
God is never the one who misleads the people. They lead themselves astray by not thinking. And you may even be so misguided, if you are not proud or sure of yourself and your opinion / knowledge, then God will always send you back signs or aids that can wake you up.
however, Someone who is convinced to know everything, he closes so the guidance by himself , God never misguide someone. -
Salaam Many thanks for your response. Could I just be clear on one thing please? Are you saying that your understanding is that if someone is misguided, Allah's will is involved?
Yes, one must confess that it is God who misguides them, for nothing escapes His sovereignty. That being said, I believe from there you may be jumping to the conclusion that God is misguiding some "innocent" person, who really wants to be guided. Such is not the case, for we must realize who man is and who God is. Man is not a morally neutral agent, he is, as the Quran loudly proclaims, one who is in darkness being spiritually dead, blind, deaf and dumb. God also testifies to His own justice and holiness when He says that He would not leave a single creature if He were to give man what He has earned immediately (3545). The noun translated as "creature" denotes those who walk and crawl therefore no man, woman or child can stand before God on his own merits, otherwise God could never speak in this manner.
Reason I ask is that this is an important point. I find that in some/many of our communities, where 'wrong' happens people say "It was Allah's will, that is why it happened".
If they believe that everything happenes because God has so willed it, then they should also believe that He is just and holy, therefore the fault lies within themselves, for they are in love with their sin. Yet even if we speak of believers, they are still polluted with sin before God and just as a father chasitises his son out of love, so too God brings hardship on His people that He might bring them to His mercy
I feel it leads to a passive mindset and at an extreme level, one might say we are blaming Allah for the ills of this world.
Well that would be directly contrary to what scripture teaches, that man is responsible.
Whereas as per the quranic aayah I looked at and quoted above, there is a clear message of personal choice and free will given to mankind, supported by the need for perseverance, and indeed this is what makes man different and superior from other living beings.
Again, man has a will and indeed makes choices, none of this is in dispute. The question is whether those choices can be free from God, or whether they are free even from man's own nature. Man can only will to make choices in conformity with his nature, you have here assumed that man's nature is moral neutrality, yet the Quran teaches the contrary.
Where Allah's will is involved, my understanding is that this is in the form of the perfected laws of nature He has created, including the laws of 'cause and effect'. Every action we take has a result, and the result is programmed through the laws that Allah willed.
Well if it helps, then God has willed to guide some and misguide others, for His own eternal glory. Thus the "law" is that those who He guides, He causes their hearts to soften to His law, and to seek refuge in His mercy, while those who He misguides, are only hardened in their rebellion.
Grateful for clarity as to whether your suggestion is that Allah's will is involved in misguiding - other than the laws of nature he has created. Would Allah 'will' some people to be misguided? What judgement will they receive on the Last Day?
Yes He absolutely wills to misguide for He says (7179) "And certainly we have created for hell a great many from jinn and men; for they have hearts with which they do not understand, and eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear; they are like cattle, to the contrary they are even more astray, they are ignorant, heedless." (My own translation). They will receive the judgment which they have earned, which is endless suffering. Under God's patient decree He has allowed them to live in their evil rebellion, and then when He chooses He will bring upon them justice, repaying them to their face. Please understand that if one does not know how hateful sin is to God, then one cannot appreciate one's own depravity, and how God must bring punishment against all sinners for He has declared Himself to be just.
Peace
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Well, I cannot disagree with the explanation given above, and the quran is clear on this subject. Everything occurs by the will of allah.
However, it is not that you are predestined to be in hell or heaven. Rather allah tests the human body-nafs-soul. In those He finds gratefulness, those are guided to mercy. Those who are ungrateful are ungrateful by their very nature. That does not mean specific people are born directly to go to hell. It is your own free choice to win/lose, the only rule is that hell will be filled to the brim with the losers who follow the ungrateful one(s).
The justice in this is clearly explained in quran if you follow the conversations between allah and iblis. We remember - allah is the truth, the heavens and earth are created in/with the truth. Thus belief/disbelief is utmostly serious because this is absolute reality - there is no reality, existence, universe, truth, whatever beyond or without allah. And as it is absolute reality, every last quantum of it is sacred beyond measure. As such we understand why allah would totally annihilate humanity if He were to punish us without respite and forgiveness - this is as real as it gets. Any damage you do to anything is severe beyond bounds because this is existence we are messing with.
Truly for yourself consider what existence/is-ness is even non-being occurs in this reality, this is the ONLY reality that can/will exist. That colourless, formless, awareness-free void you came from, where there was no idea of "existence/non-existence" - even that is a mere part of THE reality. Existence is no plaything.
In chapter 21 we are told allah created the heavens and earth to distinguish truth from falsehood. And as allah is THE truth, it is essentially distinguishing things of allah and things not of allah.
Anyway
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Does every man of them desire that he should be made to enter the garden of bliss?
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By no means! Surely We have created them of what they know.Peace
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I can only speak from my own experiences. I was often on the wrong path, not knowing whether God exists, after I came back to Catholicism, I was completely astray. However, this was done unconsciously, not deliberately. I.e. I never denied God or willfully made fun of people who believe. I just could not accept more of these Christian Associations, and turned away. This is an important point. The actual act of will to reject God, or to make fun of him.
I wandered ever further. But God saved me, not once but several times-before death.
God is never the one who misleads the people. They lead themselves astray by not thinking. And you may even be so misguided, if you are not proud or sure of yourself and your opinion / knowledge, then God will always send you back signs or aids that can wake you up.
however, Someone who is convinced to know everything, he closes so the guidance by himself , God never misguide someone.Salaam,
I agree with MirJamnur.
I understand "Allah misguides whom He will" as a teacher who is correcting a student's answer sheet, he can pass the student or he can fail him it is in his hands BUT actually it depends upon the answers given by the students.
If that student gave wrong answers and did not get passing marks = teacher failed him
If that student gave correct answers and got passing marks = teacher passed himHere teacher got the rights to pass or fail the student but the teacher decides result on basis of the answers given.
Same way, Allah has full right to guide or misguide anyone but He never do that, He only does it when we misguides ourselves or try for the guidance.
478
478 Wherever you may be, death will find you, even if you are in fortified towers. If any good befalls them, they say "This is from God," and if any evil befalls them, they say "This is from you!" Say "All is from God;" what is wrong with these people, they barely understand any narrative!479
479 Any good that befalls you is from God, and any evil that befalls you is from yourself. We have sent you as a messenger to the people and God is enough as a witness.If you notice, 478 refers to general public and said that whatever good or bad that befalls them is from Allah, but in 479 it refers to YOU. If anything good befalls you is from Allah but if anything evil befalls you is from YOURSELF. Why? What is the difference?
I hope this will help inshaAllah to understand this topic.
May Allah guide us all to His true path pr
mmKhan -
I also agree that Allah does not mis-guide.
Hoppean, I can see you are quite strong in your views and the way you explain them, but if you but look back at your explanation you will see the contradictions in your explanations, and the Qur'an cannot have any contradictions. You say, "Yes, one must confess that it is God who misguides them", but then you also say, "Well that would be directly contrary to what scripture teaches, that man is responsible." Do you see the contradiction? And it is this contradiction that, for me, suggests that the normal translations, which are in line with what you say, are incorrect, and Mohammad Asad's translation is correct.I think what is causing your confusion is that you are taking each word literally, not considering the context and the way in which Allah explains his aayah to us through other aayah, and pondering over the essence of Allah's law that comes through from the Qur'an.
There simply cannot be any logic in Allah willfully misguiding his creations. Why would He then give us the instructions to become mu'min? How could there be justice on the Last Day if He has misguided people Himself?
Finally
(3957-59) On the Day of Judgement people will claim that if Allah had guided them they would have become ?muttaqee?, and they would want a second chance. However, Allah?s message (the Qur?an) was given to them, but they rejected the messages and were filled with false pride (that they were good people).I do not think it could any clearer than this.
Allah-hu-Akbar
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And among men there is he who disputes about Allah without knowledge and follows every rebellious Shaitan;
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Against him it is written down that whoever takes him for a friend, he shall lead him astray and conduct him to the chastisement of the burning fire.We are warned not to take friends other than believers for this reason.
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lol Now if you think the other way, what would it be like if Allah did misguide? I mean would you then reject Allah because Allah misguides? Often it seems you people run away from facing reality to make things more pleasant for yourselves because you feel that you might not believe if it were the other way around and the truth were unpleasant.
Surely Allah can guide whoever, but at least doesn't guide everyone, which is the same as leaving some misguided, or leaving some with diseased hearts. Its like you don't think properly or thoroughly.
The Qur'an in any case, in normal translations, clearly and repeatedly states that Allah is responsible for all this though in a very direct way, down to even what can be willed by any of us.
Yet the more pertinent issue here is what you fear realizing.
You run from the dark side of things it seems because you wouldn't accept Allah in a certain way. You want a God that is omni-benevolent or all loving, while you exist in a reality that proves there is no such thing at all.
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The misguidance people stand for themselves.